Homeward Bound
by emptyonideas
Summary: Mia was home from college, and apparently, everyone had gone crazy in her absence. But what were her sister and her friends hiding, and where did Derek Hale come in? Derek/OC
1. Chapter 1

**When you finally go back to your old home, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood.**

-Sam Ewing

* * *

**INTRODUCTION**

"I'm home!"

Mia dumped her suitcase to the side of the door, not caring that it flopped over with an angry thud against the worn wood. Scanning her yellow painted living room, she frowned. Life signs were almost zero, unless you counted the fish in the tank against the wall. She supposed she'd have to, as their dad regarded those fish as a favorite third and fourth child.

"Nemo, Marlin," she greeted them, nodding at the clown fish as she walked farther inside.

"I'm home!" Mia called again. It smelled strongly of coffee so she knew her dad had been there somewhat recently.

"Mia?"

Mia smiled and followed the voice toward the dining room, where Izzy was perched against the stairs, slipping boots on her feet. Mia leaned against the heavy oak table laden with her dad's papers and journals.

"What are you doing here?" Izzy asked, one shoe in her hand and the other hand on her hip. "I thought you came home tomorrow!"

"I'm early," Mia said, shrugging. "I said my goodbyes after graduation, there was no reason to wait."

Izzy nodded energetically. There was little that her sister did without a bundle of force. Their dad always said Izzy was never at rest, even when she was asleep. Her body was always buzzing with chatter and nerves.

"Are you going out?" Mia asked.

Izzy's clothes was mismatched as usual, a striped blue skirt and floral top paired with green boots. Whenever she pictured Izzy in her mind, she was wearing a silly outfit, and she was glad on some secret nostalgic level that it was something that hadn't changed.

"Yeah, Scott and Stiles are heading to the bowling alley." Izzy looked slightly guilty. "Do you want me to stay home?"

"Thanks, kiddo, but I'm just gonna rest up. Did a lot of driving." Mia bit her lip. "Dad home?"

"Nope."

Izzy tilted her head just enough that Mia could not read her expression, but she didn't have to see it to know.

"Does he even know I'm coming home?"

"I'm sure he knows," Izzy shrugged. "But he's really busy with his lesson plans, and he's writing some big paper."

"Are you secretly hiding a surprise welcome home party?" Mia joked, rolling her eyes.

"We were, but now that you've found out I'll have to call it off," Izzy said with a bright grin.

"Damn my big mouth." Mia shook her head, glad that Izzy was smiling again. "Will you be home for dinner?"

"Sure," Izzy nodded happily, her feet bouncing. "I can bring home pizza!"

"Nah, I want to cook something," Mia said, glancing toward the kitchen and hoping it wasn't a mess. "Is lemon chicken still your favorite?"

Izzy fixed her with a look. "Are hobbits short?"

"In comparison to men and elves..."

Izzy laughed, suddenly lurching forward and encircling Mia's waist.

After their parent's divorce, Mia and Izzy got on a certain wavelength. Their dad had always been the distant, genius type and their mother was just simply distant, so they started to rely on each other. Mia leaving for college had sort of broken that bond, but she could feel it rise again when she hugged her sister back. She was home now, and Izzy was going to have some semblance of normality. She deserved it.

Releasing her and promising to be home by six, Izzy skipped out the door, her jade green boots flashing behind her. Mia waved good-bye, turning back to the empty house with a small frown.

This wasn't really the homecoming she'd wished for, but she should have learned long ago to lower her expectations.

"It's just me and you guys," she said, sitting on the couch next to the fish tank. "Wanna watch Jaws?"

* * *

A week later, when Mia got over sleeping late and staying in her pajamas all day, she started taking morning walks.

Izzy, her chatterbox sister who normally couldn't wait to hang out with her, had politely declined her invitations to join her, so she walked in solitude most days.

Something about the forest calmed her. She had been in the city for so long that she had forgotten she knew what wet earth smelled like, how the spaces in the leaves could show light like rain droplets, or how silent everything could actually be when you weren't surrounded by people all the time.

That was one thing she hadn't liked about college in New York. She loved the city, and she loved the excitement, but it drained her in a lot of ways. Being home the last week was the most relaxed she'd felt in months, and these walks were becoming the favorite part of her day.

Well at least they were, until that morning.

Mia looked around, hearing an oddly sharp and loud sound. She didn't see anything except more trees, as they grew denser the farther she peered inside. Everything she saw was brown and green and gray, and there was no signs of life except the bird cooing above her. Frowning, she continued on, hoping it was some sort of hopefully unharmful animal.

It was already growing warm, and rolled up her sleeves to expose her arms. Izzy and her got her mother's complexion—pale as a ghost, their father would say, and she rubbed her skin, willing it to tan.

She walked on for a few more moments, trying to shake the anxious feeling you can get when you become paranoid. But it was nothing, she resolved, because this was Beacon Hills and she'd lived here her whole life...she would be fine.

But just as she reached the spot she usually turned back around at—a large boulder half covered in bright green moss—she heard it again.

This time it was slightly different, sounding more like a slipping log, followed by a short rustle and then silence.

Mia's heart leapt this time. Her mom always used to tell her to take something with her, anything to defend herself just in case, but she'd always rolled her eyes.

She looked around again. Her sneakers were obnoxiously bright as she looked at the hot pink contrast against the brown dirt. Once more she didn't hear anything except insects and the whoosh of air.

Shaking her head, she started to walk back.

_It was just her imagination._

Her footsteps were quicker, despite her repeating this. She felt her legs strain at the pace...maybe she should make these walks into runs, and loosen up her muscles. But she hated running and sweating and that's why she'd always chosen more stationary activities and..._what was that?_

Most definitely a far away animal, but still, Mia had enough for one day. Her stomach was twisting painfully and her nerves felt electric.

She came on this walk to calm herself, but she ran the whole way home.

* * *

An odd shift occurred a few days after Mia told Izzy of the noises..._She would not leave her alone._

Now, Mia loved her sister dearly, but she also loved some personal space now and then, and Izzy did not seem to grasp the concept as of late.

She ate all meals with her, followed her if she went anywhere outside of the house, and started having her friends over instead of going to them. It was sweet that she wanted to be around Mia, but it was driving her crazy to have all these teenagers around her all the time.

She took a tentative sip of orange juice and shut her eyes. Izzy was babbling to Scott about a movie she wanted to see, and Stiles was adding sarcastic comments at every pause of breath she took. It was a feat Mia actually admired, because it wasn't always easy to get a word in when Izzy was excited.

"Dese eggs are fanthastich."

Mia opened her eyes and glared at Stiles, who had begun to eat off her plate at some point. She had only cooked enough for herself and Izzy, which was a bad idea in hindsight. Not that there would be enough eggs to satisfy the two boys who had become glued to her side.

Stiles grinned sheepishly, wiping his mouth.

"Did I mention you look beautiful today?"

Mia highly doubted it, as she was in an oversized shirt and her hair was piled atop her head, so she snorted and shook her head. Scott and Stiles had been Mia's friends for years, so she had no problem being herself around them.

"Don't you guys want to, you know, _get out _today?" Mia suggested, swiping her plate from Stiles.

"What you don't want us here?" Stiles asked, grabbing his heart dramatically. "I see no reason why a twenty one year old woman...nay,_ role model_ wouldn't want to devote her time to three teenagers who look up to her so much."

"I don't know what's going on here," Mia said, waving her fork between the three faces now looking at her angelically. "But I will find out."

Izzy avoided her eyes as Mia sent a pointed look in her direction. Her auburn hair shielded her face just enough that Mia couldn't read her.

Sighing, Mia got up. There was something weird at play. There was some reason these kids wouldn't leave her alone. Did they want her to buy them beer? No...that wasn't like Izzy. Did they want her to drive them around? That was off the table, because she'd been trying to get them to go out somewhere, _anywhere_ for days. She couldn't figure it out and every time she asked, they acted like she was crazy.

Her toes curled against the checkerboard floor, which was cool even in the warming air. She put her plate in the sink and turned back to the table, where the three very suspicious kids were exchanging very suspicious looks.

Rolling her eyes, she began to walk out of the room before Izzy's voice stopped her.

"Where are you going?" Her voice was sharp and urgent and Mia frowned.

"Uh, the bathroom."

"Oh, okay." Izzy let out a sigh, and Mia's eyebrows scrunched together.

"Have fun, then," Stiles called, waving brightly at her.

Shaking her head in confusion, she left them in the kitchen.

* * *

"Mia's getting suspicious of us," Scott noticed, whispering to his friends as the older girl left the room.

"Well she's not stupid," Stiles said, shaking his head. "We barely let her go the bathroom without following her."

"She knows I'm keeping something from her." Izzy frowned, her normally bright eyes dull from lack of sleep.

"Because you are terrible at keeping secrets," Stiles added, stealing a piece of her bacon.

She didn't even notice him, just looked back toward the doorway.

"We can't keep following her forever," Scott said, biting his lip. "She's going to kill us."

"Well we can't let her go off alone!"

Scott was surprised as Izzy's outburst. She hadn't been this angry since she learned he was a werewolf, and he had lied about it to her for months.

"I know," Scott said, rubbing his temples. "I could ask Isaac to help us, but he's not great at tracking. Which only leaves one person."

"God?" Stiles asked.

"We have to ask Derek," Scott said, pointedly ignoring Stiles.

"Derek...Hale?" Izzy asked, her wide eyes looking concerned.

"No, Derek Jeter," Stiles said, rolling his eyes.

Izzy ignored him too, and shook her head.

"He scares me."

"Yeah, well we need help. You just have to keep her here while we go talk to him."

Izzy nodded slowly, her eyes tracing an invisible route toward the stairs. They all looked that direction as they started to hear music play from Mia's room.

"She really has no idea?" Stiles asked, hearing the upbeat drums from here.

"That a werewolf is following her?" Izzy asked, looking at him. "I'm going to say that's not her first guess."

* * *

**Sadly, I couldn't get out of writer's block for my Stiles story so I stole some of my ideas for it and it turned into this! **

**Can I interest anyone in a Derek story?**


	2. Chapter 2

**"The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one." **

- Margaret Atwood

* * *

It was Tuesday, it was warm, it was early, and Mia was happy.

She slid into the kitchen, bouncing on her feet. She was actually going out today and the prospect was bright considering she'd been shut in with the shady trio the last few days. She flung open the left cabinet door and almost hit her entering dad in the face.

"Careful," he grumbled.

His eyes were red and told her that he'd probably stayed up late writing a paper. Her parents were both studying physics when they met, and although her dad had taken up teaching, he spent all other waking moments in a lab or shut up in his office.

"Morning," she said, grabbing a white mug for him. He took it tiredly, yawning. His beard and hair had flecks of gray in it, and he had grown thin since she last saw him. She frowned as he took a sip of black coffee, his gray eyes squinting with the heat.

"I have to run a few errands today," her dad said, staring into his mug. The hems of his blue shirt were fraying. "Do you need anything?"

"Just some bread."

Mia always felt somewhat shy around her dad, and she hated herself for it. She was always told by everyone how brilliant Franklin Maher was, but all she could think of was how many things he missed growing up, how many forced conversations they'd had, how many times she had to give Izzy advice when their parents weren't around...

He nodded, glancing at the plate she took. It was bright teal and she'd accidentally cracked a part of it off but it was her favorite anyway.

"I'm going out with my friend Adam today," Mia told him, grabbing a box of Pop-tarts. "He's staying with family nearby."

"Oh?" Her dad raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do?"

"Probably eat out for lunch. I'm not really sure," Mia shrugged.

Her dad nodded again, taking a long gulp of coffee.

"Did you take your vitamins?"

Mia nodded, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. As if her dad wanted to seem somewhat in his parent role, he always reminded her to never leave without her phone and to always take her vitamins. _ A parent script_, she thought. Her mom had been the same, when she lived here.

"Good," he said, smiling at her. "It's nice to see you getting out of the house."

Mia wanted to remind him that he was apt to stay inside for days, but she thought better of it and tried to just be happy he was having a normal conversation with her.

"Yeah, it'll be nice."

"Well, have fun. I'll see you at dinnertime?"

"Yup," Mia said, remembering she had to take meat out from the freezer. "I'm making your favorite."

"Great! We've missed your cooking."

"It's hard to survive on frozen pizza and spaghetti," Mia grinned, knowing that neither him or Izzy had a cooking bone in their body.

"Somehow we made it through," her dad said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "But it's nice that you're home now."

* * *

"You have five minutes."

Scott and Stiles looked at Derek, who looked back at them annoyed and somewhat disinterested, an expression only he could pull off. They had parked the car twenty feet from the Maher house and had walked to the woods behind it, thankfully going undetected so far.

Derek stood out of place amidst the moss and leaves in his leather jacket, but Scott knew he was already on the alert, his head swiveling to take in all the noises and smells around him. Scott still marveled at his new senses-was always a little surprised that he could smell the dead squirrel a few yards away, or the sound of dripping water from the upper leaves of the trees, but Derek was used to it. He focused now, looking back at Scott.

"So you smelled it here?"

"Yeah," Scott said, pointing to the ground and tracing an invisible line to his right. "Along Izzy's sister's walking path. And then around their house, near her window."

"But never near the door?"

"No. Just far enough away to watch."

Scott hadn't told Izzy that small piece of information. She had been worried enough when he told her anything at all, and he didn't want to add onto it.

"Give me a minute."

Scott and Stiles watched Derek disappear after a few moments, trading a look.

"Are we sure this is going to help us?" Stiles hands were tapping a beat on his legs, showing he was anxious.

"No...but maybe this is my fault, Stiles," Scott said, rubbing his neck. "I mean, what would Izzy and Mia have to do with werewolves? Does it have something to do with me? What if it hurts them because I'm in their life?"

"I'm not really surprised by anything anymore, to be honest," Stiles said, his eyes looking in the direction that Derek went. "But I really don't think this is your fault."

Not really knowing what to say, they both waited in silence, shuffling their feet. They jumped a little when a bird called out above their heads, but other than that they waited for Derek to return.

In a few minutes, he did, his face a mask they couldn't read.

"The trail ends about half a mile that way," Derek said, pointing behind him. "I don't think we can really learn anything unless we see them here."

Scott let out a breath, but he didn't miss the 'we' in the sentence. He knew that once he got Derek here he would help them...or at least that's what he hoped.

"So what should we do?" Stiles asked, catching Derek's attention. "Stake out?"

"The trail was pretty fresh," Derek told them. "No older than a day, I'd guess. Which means this guy comes pretty often, if you first smelled it a few days ago."

"So we wait here?" Scott asked, not really liking that plan.

"We..." Derek trailed off, and Scott caught on, following his gaze. He'd heard the footsteps too, but Derek was quicker, immediately darting toward the sound.

"Maybe they're already here?" Stiles asked hopefully and a bit worriedly, looking at Scott. "What are the chances we're that lucky?"

"If we look at our track record, not that great," Scott deadpanned, sighing and starting to follow Derek. "But let's see."

* * *

The pizza place wasn't crowded, and Mia and Adam got a seat near the window. Antonio's was all dark reds and browns, and Mia's emerald green vans stuck out like a sore thumb as she slid into her seat.

She had slipped out without Izzy noticing, thankfully, and felt a breath of relief as she sat with someone who was over the age of seventeen and not watching her like she was going to get up and take flight at any moment.

Adam and Mia had met her last year of college. If she had any regrets, it was that she hadn't met him sooner. She could have used his calming presence in her first anxiety filled year of bad parties and awkward meetings, but she supposed it was too late now.

She watched Adam push her plate closer to her to encourage her to eat while he eagerly started to on his own food, winking at her.

Adam was tall and smart and goofy. He had the appetite of a man three times his size, and his clothes never fit right. He lived three hours away, loved anything to do with Star Wars, and Mia was just a little bit in love with him.

It was something she constantly tried to talk herself out of, because you know, he had a girlfriend and unrequited love was not that much fun. And yet, every time she was with him she couldn't help the shameless pull of her stomach when he smiled at her.

But she was working on it. Really.

"Do I have something on my face?"

Adam frowned and wiped his cheek, his green eyes darting to check for imaginary dirt. He never could grow much of a beard but she noticed a little stubble dotting his jaw, and shook her head, forcing her eyes away from his jawline.

"Nope," she said, swallowing. "Just zoned out a little."

"S'ok," Adam took another bite of his pizza. "I'm used to people staring."

Mia rolled her eyes and hoped she wasn't blushing, taking a sip from her purple and blue splotched soda cup.

"So what have you been doing with yourself?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious.

"You know, binging on Netflix, hanging out with teenagers."

"So the usual?"

"Pretty much." She chuckled. "You?"

"My dad's already on my case to get a job."

"We're barely graduated!" she protested. She hadn't even thought of applying to anything yet, didn't even know what to do with her English major. She was happy her dad was too oblivious to care about her career choices, at least for now.

"I know. But the Johnson family motto is pretty much 'work, work, work'."

"A boring motto," Mia joked, shaking her head.

"And unoriginal," Adam let out a deep sigh of fake regret. "But it's already engraved on all the plaques so there's no changing it now."

Mia snorted, covering her mouth to hide her grin. Adam smiled and took another bite of his pizza, already half done while Mia had barely started.

"Why are you hanging out with teenagers?" Adam asked, frowning. "Izzy, you mean?"

"Her friends have become by shadows," Mia shuddered. "I love them and all, but they're acting so weird."

"Well teenagers are pretty weird. And _scary_...god, I run the other way when I see a group of teenagers coming my way." Adam's eyes were wide and amused. Mia shook her head at him.

"I'm glad we're out of those formative years."

"Shelly says I'm an overgrown child," Adam said, shrugging with a grin. "But what does she know?"

Mia bristled at the mention of Shelly, like she always did when the tall red-head was mentioned. But perhaps the only good thing about Shelly was that she was rarely around when she and Adam hung out, and for that she was thankful.

"I read in a book once that there really are no grown-ups," Mia said, recalling the sentence. "I tend to agree that no one really knows what they're doing, despite appearances."

"I like that philosophy," Adam said, grabbing his large cup of soda and stretching it toward hers. "To not knowing what we're doing!"

Mia grinned, picking up her own soda to hit against his.

"Cheers!"

* * *

Mia waved good-bye to Adam, feeling the lingering sadness mixed with contentedness she always felt around him. She sighed as she walked back to her small two-story house, knowing that she probably wouldn't see him for a while, or ever really get anywhere with him. She tried to push it from her mind as she began to walk up the stairs to the porch, and then she heard a noise.

Peering around the handrail, she looked back toward the woods.

Adam's car had already pulled away. Mia heard rustling and the low tone of something she thought could be voices.

Oh god, was it happening again?

She peered to her left and saw a car. A fancy car, which was the most specific she got about those types of things. Huh. Weird. She didn't know anybody with that nice of a car, and they certainly weren't at her house, so that meant they had to be the one in the woods...

Throwing her paranoia to the wind, she decided just to walk a little into the trees and see if she could see anything. Maybe it was just kids all along, and she could tell them to beat it.

She had on a black cross body bag and it hit against her hip as she walked quickly toward where the trees grew denser. The air changed a bit in here, became a cooler from the shade. She avoided a few fallen branches that probably happened in a heavy rain a few months ago and prodded as lightly as she could through the undergrowth.

She suddenly wished she wasn't wearing flip flops. Leaves got caught between her toes, but she tried to kick them off and continue through.

She strained her eyes but couldn't see anything except more and more woods, and then she strained her ears and realized this did nothing except make her look stupid.

She was about to turn around when a rough jab hit her in the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. Before she realize, she was pinned against a tree, her heart hitting her chest like an anvil and her throat dry.

A strong hand moved to her shoulders, holding her against the tree. The bark scraped the back of her legs, bare in her jean shorts, and she finally saw who it was that was holding her.

He had on a leather jacket of all things, his eyes dark and narrow as he looked at her. He looked dangerous, for lack of a better term, and Mia was suddenly very sure that this would be her end. Would her dad find her body? Oh god...would Izzy?

"What are you doing here?"

Okay, so maybe not murder. But bodily harm, perhaps, for this man's hands were holding her stronger than a vice and she suspected he wasn't even trying that hard.

"I live here," Mia choked out, fighting the urge to slap him. This was behind _her_ house! She had a hunch any sort of violence she initiated wouldn't end well for her though. And she kind of was maybe too scared to even try, unless she could get past her thumping chest or her stomach which felt lodged in the entirely wrong area.

"Derek!"

Mia could barely move her head, but saw a streak of dark hair from the corner of her eye as Scott ran up to them, pushing what she now knew were _Derek_'s hands from her body.

Who the hell was Derek? Why did Scott know him? He was definitely years older than him, and they didn't seem like friends, if Derek's death stare toward Scott was any indication. Mia rubbed her freed shoulders and did her best not to collapse in confusion as her mind spun uncomfortably with a million theories.

"Mia, are you okay?"

She faintly heard Derek echo her name, but she didn't even look at him. She raised her head, the forest tilting on its side. She shut her eyes for a moment, knowing that now she heard Stiles voice, saying something high pitched that she didn't register.

_Scott, Stiles...here. Probably Izzy soon. Noises, them following her all the time. This strange man suspicious of her in her own backyard._

She opened her eyes. This was it. She'd had enough.

"Now is the time," Mia said slowly, her voice sharp as she looked at their worried eyes. "To tell me what the hell is going on."

* * *

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed! Sorry this took so long to get out, but I've definitely decided to continue with it. :) **

**This will be the Summer before season 3, but I haven't really decided how much I'll incorporate the storyline in S3 yet! **

**Thoughts?**


	3. Chapter 3

**"Telling the truth when the truth matters most is almost always a frightening prospect."**

-Michael Chabon

* * *

The fish were staring at her.

Mia stared back at them, wondering if the orange blurs could hear the conversation in the room. She wished she was underwater, that way maybe the voices would just be vibrations and she could forget she'd ever heard them at all.

_Werewolves._

Mia's head was on the verge of collapsing in on itself. She had a momentary mental picture of her body just folding into smaller pieces until it disappeared, but when she blinked, she was still there. Whole, on the couch, staring into three faces whose expressions were all different.

Scott's—earnest and hopeful. Stiles's—jumpy and worried. Derek's—aloof and annoyed.

_Werewolves. Werewolves in real life, in their very own Beacon Hills. A werewolf following her._ The words swirled in her head, but she couldn't really make herself believe them. It sounded too much like a story she'd read somewhere. It sounded too much like a joke or a myth.

"Am I on candid camera?" she muttered, her hands encircling her brain, willing it to stay inside her skull.

"What is it, 1995?" she heard Derek sneer, but she ignored it.

"If you guys don't want to tell me what's going on, think of a better story than that you're all werewolves." She looked back up at them, her hands falling to her sides.

"I'm not a werewolf!" Stiles announced. Derek and Scott glared at him and his shoulders slumped. "Well I'm not," he grumbled, looking down.

"We're not lying, Mia," Scott said. "It's hard to believe at first, but why would I make that up?"

"Izzy knows. Ask her," Stiles added. "She almost fainted when we told her. So, you know, in comparison you're doing better. Meaner, but better."

"I'm not mean," Mia snapped, but heard the sharpness of her voice and tried to soften it. "I just don't respond well to crazy."

"It _is _crazy, but that doesn't mean it's not true," Derek added, his voice a cadence below Scott's.

"I just...can't believe it."

Nobody answered her, and Mia thought maybe they'd given up on this charade. Maybe they'd tell her they secretly murdered someone and were trying to cover it up, and now someone was chasing them. Or they'd been it witness protection and been found. Nothing seemed too out of reach, as long as it wasn't _this_.

And then Mia looked up.

Scott's eyes flashed and his face began to morph. She watched in stomach twisting fascination as his features changed, his hair growing into long sideburns and his nose elongating. His teeth grew pointier and she knew they could do serious damage now. She dropped her gaze to his hands that had curled at his sides, small claws emerging where his fingernails should have been. She felt like someone had dropped a weight onto her chest, forcing the air to escape her lungs in one, shuddering motion.

She swallowed hard, forcing painful oxygen down her throat and resisting the strong urge to make a run for the door.

Scott had just changed before her eyes. _Changed his body_. Unless they had slipped her some powerful drugs...that had just happened.

But werewolves, of all things?

"Oh."

Derek cocked an eyebrow at her, but she flicked her eyes back to Scott who was slowly turning back into the boy she'd known since he came up to her waist. How had so much changed? Where was the asthmatic boy with ears too big for him? When did he become something else?

"It's not just on the full moon?" she asked slowly, thinking of all the werewolves she'd read about in books. Her limbs felt heavy, but she had an odd sort of muted calm.

"No. The pull is just stronger then, especially if you're new," Derek supplied, even though she hadn't been talking to him.

"And you don't go...crazy? Become dangerous?" Mia asked. She couldn't believe she was thinking or asking these questions, but she had to know if Scott was going to flip a switch by showing her his abilities.

"Some of them are crazy," Stiles muttered, but Scott quickly shot him a look.

"You learn to control it." Scott amended, looking at her like she might scream at any moment. "We wouldn't hurt you."

But then Scott's earlier words had flashed through her mind.

_There are werewolves in Beacon Hills, Mia. And one of them is following you._

"We're not telling you any of this to scare you," Scott interrupted her thoughts, sitting down on the couch next to her. She thought she might flinch, but something steeled inside her and she suddenly wasn't afraid. At least not of Scott. "We're telling you so that you know why we're helping you."

"That still leaves one question. Well, a lot of questions really, but one big one." Mia looked over at him, shifting so she could face him and hide her jumpy knees—her telltale sign of nervousness. She twisted her locket in her fingers, the chain making her fingertips white. "Why is there one following me?"

"That depends on what you did." Derek's voice held little sympathy.

"I didn't do anything," Mia said, anger bubbling through her words. Derek's voice was cold and she wanted it to go away. "I think I'd remember incurring the wrath of a monster."

"Well you must have done something," Derek snapped. For someone with light eyes, his gaze was dark and would have made her shrink away under different circumstances.

Scott shared a look with Derek that did not go unnoticed by Mia. Derek looked reluctant but finally turned away to look out the window, his fists curled at his sides. Stiles pursed his lips and looked away from her too, right before Scott spoke up.

"We don't know why this is happening," Scott admitted, his face back to normal as his shoulders squared. "But we are going to find out."

Mia started to open her mouth again, when she heard a large bang and shuffling footsteps.

They all looked toward the doorway where a pink skirted, purple footed Izzy bounced into the room, her hair curled in all different directions.

"Mia I was thinking we could—" Her voice died as she looked around the room, four very different emotions splayed across it. "What did I miss?"

* * *

Mia peered out the window. She couldn't see him, but she knew Scott was on the edges of their backyard and probably had been since the start of the night. Yesterday, after having her world view supernaturally altered, Scott and Derek had decided to take turns watching the Maher house.

Between the new creature revelations in her life and the sudden realization that she had somehow done something to make a werewolf follow her, Mia gave up on any chance of sleep.

She pushed open her bedroom door lightly. It always creaked, making it impossible to so much as get a drink of water without waking everyone. But if she pushed slowly and slipped out through the smallest crack, she only made a slight noise. She did so now, her slippers muffling her footsteps as she went down the wooden stairs.

Her hand trailed on the banister, feeling the knots in the wood. Izzy had gotten her head stuck between the bars when she was ten and they had to remove one of the white spindles to get her out. The gap remained—her father never really getting around to home repair—and it made Mia smile every time she saw it.

She felt along the wall when she reached the bottom, moonlight filtering in from the small, high window in their dining room. Her fingertips traced along the cold wallpaper, the stripes all looking black and gray in this lighting.

She flipped on the kitchen switch when she reached it, frowning. Izzy had left the counters a mess. The bread was forlorn on the counter, the twist tie long gone, a half full glass of water was next to the sink and peanut butter and jelly jars were half-open, a dirty knife placed on top.

She pushed aside the bread and jars, leaning to reach into the cabinet.

* * *

Mia's hand clutched the red and white mug in one hand, the other out in front of her. Something about darkness made her feel like the entirety of the backyard would be moved around, even though the half broken lawn chairs and rusty swing set remained where they always were.

"Scott?" she called out.

The slight wind on her bare legs and the fact that she felt like she would smash into an unforeseen object was making her regret her choice, but she was already out so she forged onward.

"Scott?"

"Mia?"

Her name was unfamiliar in this voice, and it sent a weird sensation through her stomach. Squinting, she saw a figure taller and more muscular than Scott, although not quite as welcoming.

"Oh, sorry, I thought it was Scott's turn."

She didn't know how she felt about Derek being out here. In the last twenty-four hours he had slammed her into a tree and accused her of attracting werewolf wrath. It was obvious he didn't hold any friendly feelings toward her, but she supposed she should be thankful he was here helping her. Scott trusted him with that for some reason, and she trusted Scott.

"He left an hour ago." Derek appraised her, looking at the mug in her hands before back to her face. "Did you need something?"

"Just wanted to give him some hot chocolate." Mia's words felt childish as they left her mouth, but she tried not to care what this man thought of her. "Would you like some?"

She was almost positive he would say no, but to her surprise he took the mug with only a raised eyebrow as comment. She saw now that he was hanging around the shed, pretty much only filled with a lawn mower and some bocce balls she'd bought and never used.

She leaned against it, peering into the forest. It would be rude to run back inside the moment she realized it wasn't Scott, right? She turned and saw Derek looking at her and blushed. He might be hard to read and hostile, but he was attractive and she was in her fox slippers. She cursed the moon for shining brighter over here, hoping he couldn't see her cheeks.

"Have you seen anything?"

"No."

So he wasn't a talker. Well that was fine...neither was she. Not small talk at least. Parties tended to intimidate her that way, because she always felt like she was being fake if she asked too many questions.

Instead, she just kept her eyes forward, wondering how long she had to wait until she went back inside.

"You don't have any idea who it could be?" Derek's voice was slightly accusatory, like before, but she was ready for it. She watched enough crime shows to know that cops were usually a bit suspicious if people didn't know why they were being hunted down.

"Well there is that man I murdered a few months ago..."

Derek rolled his eyes, she could practically feel it, but he kept his mouth pursed.

"No, I can't think of anything," Mia stated. She barely knew anyone in Beacon Hills anymore. And she only had a few friends from college...none of them seemed like werewolves, but she supposed Scott didn't either, so there was probably no way to tell.

"No one holding a grudge?" Derek prodded, the hot chocolate looking funny in his hands as he grilled her.

"If anyone didn't like me it's because I was quiet. People kind of thought I was stuck up in college, but I'm not." She wondered why she was telling him this, but she was already in the middle so she figured she'd finish. "I'm fine around my friends, I just don't usually start conversations unless I already know somebody."

"Any jealous ex-boyfriends?"

"No." Mia almost blushed again, but willed herself not to be embarrassed. "That might have sparked a red flag on the grudge list."

Derek's mouth twitched, which she supposed was the closest she'd get to a sign of amusement.

They fell into silence after that. Mia was leaning against the shed, her fingers twisting in the chain of the gold locket around her neck. Derek was a few inches in front of her, standing straight so she couldn't see his face. He had put the hot chocolate mug on the ground next to him. Her eyes darted around nervously, suddenly realizing that there could be someone out there right now. Someone watching them, maybe even planning something.

And she didn't know why.

The need to get inside suddenly willed her body to straighten and her hands to drop from her grandmother's locket.

"I'm going to go back inside," she told Derek, who she was sure was relieved.

He looked back and gave her a brief nod before turning back around. The leather of his jacket shone when he made small movements in the moonlight. His posture was so good that Mia made her own spine more rigid as she walked back toward the house.

* * *

Derek watched the short, dark haired girl in the fox slippers retreat to her house, taking her calm voice with her. Save for a few sharp words at him, she'd taken the werewolf revelation pretty well. But still...something was off. What had that girl done? Scott seemed to think that Boyd and Erica's disappearance was linked to this, and Derek stuck around to check, but he hadn't seen anything yet.

He flexed his fingers and looked back toward the forest. When Scott came back, he would walk through it again, see if he missed anything. But he had a few more hours to go.

"Um..."

Derek looked up, seeing Mia had paused near the door. Their house had a short step up and her foot lingered near it, her eyes trained on him. Her hands had moved from her locket to the hem of her shirt, twisting the white fabric in her skinny fingers.

"I just wanted to say thank you...for doing this."

He was surprised. Her heart had beat fast the entire time she was out here, telling him that she was afraid or at the least uneasy around him. But now, she gave him a half smile and he managed to nod once, watching her accept that and turn back around.

He watched until she entered the house, then turned back to watch the forest.

* * *

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